So, how can you compare ski resorts? What is the biggest ski resort? Or which one is the best for you?

Here is infographics from German ski instructor Christoph Schrahe. 

According to pistelength.com:

“In 2008 Christoph Schrahe founded his own consulting company Montenius Consult. Montenius Consult has been working on numerous ski area development projects in Germany but also in Austria, Turkey and Pakistan. In January 2013 Christoph Schrahe revealed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper that many ski resorts advertise themselves by claiming more piste kilometres than they actually have, the story went ‘viral’ and struck a chord with ski publications in many countries. Since then his name stands for competence in measuring piste length”

Lets’s look into some statistics found by Snowbrains based on skiresort.info :

Top Five Ski Resorts with the Longest Ski Runs:

1. Vallee Blanche – 14 miles
2. Zermatt – 13 miles
3. Alpe d’Huez – 10 miles
4. Revelstoke – 9.5 miles
5. Jackson Hole – 4.5 miles

Top Five Ski Resorts by Total Length of Pistes:

1. Les Trois Vallees- 373 miles
2. Les Portes du Soliel – 360 miles
3. 4 Vallees – 256 miles
4. Via Lattea – 248 miles
5. Zermatt – 200 miles

Top Five Ski Resorts with the Most Lifts:

1. Les Portes du Soliel – 170
2. Les Trois Vallees – 143
3. La Plagne – 92
4. SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser – 90
5. St Anton – 87

Top Five Highest Ski Resorts:

1. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain  – Lijiang is the highest ski resort worldwide. With 4,700 m , it has the highest ski lift!
2. Gulmarg resort, India – 3980 m
3. Breckenridge, Colorado – 3914 m
4. Zermatt – 3899 m
5. Loveland – 3871 m

Just imagine, if the average time of riding ski lift is ~7 minutes, how much time will you need to ski the whole resort?!

May be, the best resort for you is the one with steepest runs?

Here is the graph of grade vs slope angle for ski slopes. How steep can you ski?

Top 5 Steepest Runs:

1. Corbett Couloir, Jackson Hole, WY : 132%
2. Manni Pranger, Steinach am Brenner, Austria: 102%
3. Langer Zug, Lech, Austria: around 100%
4. Gamsleiten, Obertauern, Austria: 100%
5. Kandahar, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany: 92%

Harakiri (Austria) is just 78% flat compared to these top five, which is ~ 38 degrees.

But what makes the ski resort the best? Altitude, length of pistes, number of ski lifts?

May be the best resort for you is not the biggest but the most dog friendly? Tell us what you think!